1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sound delivery system, such as a hearing aid, a communication device, or a multimedia device, and more particularly, the invention relates to an ambidextrous sound delivery tube system for delivery of sounds to the ear canal of a user.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Sound delivery systems such as hearing aids, telephone headsets, radio headsets, and other communications and sound transmitting systems may be utilized to deliver sounds directly to the ear canal of the user. Such sound delivery systems include those two-way communication systems worn by police, firefighters, secret service agents, and the like to receive sound transmissions from a remote location and transmit sound to the remote location. Other sound delivery systems include the class of hearing aids which are used by the hearing impaired to amplify and process sounds. Traditional hearing aids include "behind the ear" (BTE) hearing aid devices which are attached behind the ear of the user.
The BTE hearing aid devices and other sound delivery systems may include a flexible plastic tube connecting a sound receiving device mounted behind the ear to an earmold eartip positioned within the ear canal. In the case of a hearing aid, the receiving device may include a microphone, an amplifier, processing circuitry, and a speaker. In the case of a sound transmission system, the receiving device includes a receiver or speaker, and processing circuitry.
The tubes for transmitting sound from the case behind the ear to the eartip are generally transparent tubes secured on one end to the case and on the other end to the eartip. The tubes may be either flexible tubes or rigid tubes formed in a preformed shape. With a flexible tube, the eartip must hold the end of the tube securely within the ear canal because the tube itself provides little or no support to the eartip to hold the end of the tube in the ear. Eartips which are used with these flexible tubes are generally custom made devices which conform to the ear canal shape and secure the sound delivery end of the tube in the ear canal. With a more rigid tube having a preformed shape, a wide variety of eartips can be used which are partially held in place in the ear canal by the rigidity of the tube. Examples of preformed tubes are described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/053,031, filed Jul. 18, 1997, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. With this rigid tube construction, tubes are made in different sizes to fit different ear sizes and are provided in left and right ear configurations.
Hearing aids are conventionally fitted to a left or right ear of a patient and are not switched between the left and right ears. However, sound delivery devices which are used by police and fire departments for communication or sound delivery devices used for multimedia applications may be used in either the left or right ear of the user. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an ambidextrous sound delivery device which may be used behind either the left or right ear of a user.
In addition, when a sound delivery device is used by different people it would be desirable to have a replaceable and disposable ear tube and/or eartip.